Running Builds Relationships
As I touched on earlier, one of the major benefits of running is not just physical but also mental. By releasing endorphins in your body, running helps calm stress and anxiety while also giving runners a sense of accomplishment after finishing a hard workout. Similarly, running also positively impacts mental health in a different way: by helping people form deeper relationships.
Reason Why I Run #2: Running brings people together
This one might be a little corny, but it seems as though runners everywhere understand each other on a fundamental level because they are able to sympathize with the pain and focus it takes to finish a hard run or workout. Although they can be very different people, there is a unique source of motivation and mental fortitude required to go out “pavement pounding” every day that all runners can relate to.
It is no coincidence that all of my closest friends run cross country and that many of us have been friends since 7th grade. As many of you know, friend groups tend to change dramatically from middle school to high school, but it seems as though every year my friends become less and less like teammates and more like brothers. My theory is that because we have endured hundreds of days of pain together and seen each other at our breaking point, we have gotten to know each other on an intimate level. Our mutual love for running and the countless hours we have spent training together have made us extremely close.
It takes effort to maintain relationships and I don’t think it’s in any of our natures to simply “hang out” every day, but running has allowed us to literally spend upwards of two hours together on a daily basis – just talking and enjoying each other’s company. That’s not to say we don’t like to do other things besides running (We do), but it provides the essential glue that not only began our friendships but continues to strengthen them.
These strong bonds are not an anomaly either; when we were on the team as a freshman, there was a group of seven seniors that also were very close friends. They did seemingly everything together because they too connected on an emotional level – enduring over four years of vacillating joy and pain. The hard work they put in was not only worked towards improving their physical fitness; it was also a testament to the strengthening of their friendships.
I would never trade the friendships I have made over my time on the cross country teams for the world. It has been such a blessing these past few years, and I hope we can continue to build our friendships in college. To anyone looking for a way to find close friends, and I highly recommend giving running a try. It might just surprise you.